JERUSALEM – Tensions between Israel and Iran rose sharply Monday when bombers struck at Israeli Embassy personnel in the capitals of India and Georgia. Israel accused the Tehran government of being behind the attacks, which Iran denied.

The wife of an Israeli defense envoy to New Delhi was injured along with several others when her car was damaged by an explosive device placed on it by a motorcyclist at a red light. In Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, a similar device was discovered on the car of a staff member of the Israeli Embassy but was defused by police.

Both resembled attacks that have killed five of Iran’s nuclear scientists in recent years, most recently last month. Iran has attributed the assassinations to Israeli agents and vowed to take revenge. The scientists’ assassinations – along with sabotage of Iran’s nuclear program through cyberwarfare and faulty parts – are aimed at delaying what the West believes is Iran’s drive to build a nuclear weapon.

If carried out by Iran, the attacks would be another indication that the leadership in Tehran was willing to reach beyond its borders against its enemies and expand its attacks to civilians. The United States has charged that Iran was behind a plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil, and Israel has said that Iran has planned to attack its citizens in various countries, but that those plots were stopped.

“In recent months we have witnessed several attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews in several countries, including Azerbaijan, Thailand and others,” he said. “In each instance we succeeded in foiling the attacks in cooperation with local authorities. Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, were behind all of these attempted attacks.”

Iranian leaders have called Israel a tumor that must be removed, and Iran arms and finances Hezbollah and Hamas, which are founded on the principle that Israel has no right to exist.

On Monday, Israeli officials said there was enough evidence from the scenes in Georgia and India to say that the bombs were the work of Iranian agents.

“Iran’s fingerprints are all over this,” one official said after emerging from high-level meetings in Jerusalem, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Israeli analysts said the attacks Monday were insignificant enough that the Israeli government would not feel driven to counterattack.

“Clearly Israel is not going to attack Iran over this,” Yoram Schweitzer, director of a terrorism project at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said by telephone. “The effect of this specific attack does not necessitate a harsh Israeli response other than condemnation.”

Michael Herzog, a retired brigadier general who is an international fellow in Israel with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, agreed.

“There is no need to respond,” he said in a telephone interview. “What is at stake in Israel’s calculations about Iran is much bigger than this.”

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